The Collaborative Leadership Program (CLP) engages students in leadership and organizing training to build collective capacity to make impactful changes in the UO campus and broader communities. The CLP uses some of the nation’s most comprehensive training curriculum to put students at the forefront of their leadership development through student-led sessions, experiential learning, and detailed planning for their future initiatives. Through sessions on modern student organizing practices (e.g. goals, strategies, etc.), meeting facilitation, anti-oppression and justice, group coordination, and effective communication, the CLP endeavors to provide opportunities for students to express their personal leadership potential.

And it’s 100% free, with free food provided! Stop by at any time on Saturday May 18, 10-5pm, in the Education Building room 276. Don’t forget to REGISTER HERE

Do you want to make the world a better place? Are you looking for a place where you can use your unique skills to make a difference, and develop your leadership skills along the way? Then CJL’s Steering Committee is for you! Anyone can apply, so apply today! For more information, go to http://www.climatejusticeleague.org/apply/ or email Co-Director Nicole Hendrix at nicolehendrix1994@gmail.com or Co-Director Roslyn Braun at roslyn.braun@gmail.com.

This week a few CJLers had the opportunity to attend the first Net Zero event from the Eugene Branch of Cascadia/Living Building Collaborative, and it did not disappoint! This event focused on Net Zero Water in Living Buildings. I’m comfortable saying that I learned more about sustainable water use in an hour and half at this event then I have in 3.5 years as an environmental science student at the University of Oregon.

A living building is a structure that gets all of its resources from the site, and returns all of those resources undiminished and unpolluted on a natural timescale back into the landscape. This means that these buildings have zero impact! And if you think that’s an easy task, think again. On a large property you may be able to use a stream or well as a water source, but even with a filtration system, septic tank and compost toilets will you be able to clean all of that water and return it to the river or ground source at the same rate it would have gone through the water cycle? And how will your infrastructure divide your different types of water, because your black water and grey water don’t need to be treated to the same extent? And can you do that without using any chemicals that would stay in the water system and aren’t naturally occurring? And now can you do this in an urban environment where all of your water needs to come from rain water collection? Do you feel overwhelmed yet?

We tried to address all of these questions and more at the Net Zero Water event, and because we had new leaders, academics, politicians, laborers and experienced citizens in a room together we were able to find new solutions to problems that green building contractors are facing! These conversations opened my eyes to new possibilities for campus. I’m really excited to see how our Zero Waste campaign will be able to incorporate net zero water into their goals and actions this year, and I can’t wait for the next Net Zero event!

If you’re interested in learning more about the next Net Zero event visit the Cascadia/Living Building Collaborative!

Last April, WWU students passed an initiative asking for administration to ban bottled water on their campus by a 73% majority. Read all about it and the ongoing process here! Definitely a story to keep an eye on as Take Back the Tap continues to work on our own campus to complete the transition to tap water.

If you have any old cell phones lying around your apartment, don’t throw them away! The University of Oregon Microfinance Initiative is collecting used cell phones as part of a fundraiser for the Haitian non-profit Fonkoze. Phones will be collected in the sustainability center at the bottom level of the EMU, and will be resold to companies that specialize in recycling and repurposing them. All of the proceeds will be paid out to Fonkoze in order to improve access to basic financial services in rural Haiti.

As a micro-finance institution (MFI), Fonkoze believes that the poor already have many of the tools to work their way out of poverty. All they lack is the financial support to buy the basic tools for their business. MFIs like Fonkoze typically provide small loans to struggling entrepreneurs to buy income generating tools such as agricultural equipment, food storage facilities, cell phones which help farmers sell their products at the highest price, etc.

Unlike most other MFIs, Fonkoze supports its clients through each step of what it calls the staircase out of poverty. For the poorest of the poor the nonprofit provides business training as well as outright services such as health care or home repair. Once the clients are in a position to run their own micro-enterprise they become eligible for loans that meet their financial needs, ranging from as little as $25 to over $1000.

Fonkoze has been instrumental in the reconstruction effort of Haiti, after the devastating earthquake in 2010. For more information about Fonkoze, see their website: http://www.fonkoze.org/

The Edible Campus campaign is the latest campaign to join the Climate Justice League, and is working to support the construction of on-campus gardens and other edible plantings. Our first project is focused on the East Campus Grove, the working title of a garden planned for the empty lot adjacent to the Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Living (CASL) on 18th and Moss. The project is a collaboration with CASL, Slow Food Eugene, the Sustainability Center, and the Residence Hall Assocation.

The goals of the East Campus Grove are:
1. Demonstrate low-impact lifestyle choices and edible gardening practices to local
community, students, and visitors.
2. Offer experiential learning opportunities through for-credit coursework, work-
parties, workshops, and tours held at the grounds.
3. Minimize non-renewable energy consumption through the use of water
catchment and grey-water reuse for irrigation.
4. Maximize efficiency through composting and other practices of on-site reuse.
5. Demonstrate how low-environmental impact can intersect with an aesthetically
pleasing landscape and economic affordability.

We are currently drafting a proposal showing a comprehensive outline of the project along with full campus and community support for an ASUO Over-realized Fund grant to purchase building materials, tools, seeds, etc. We need your help with gathering student, faculty, administration, and community support for the project, grant writing, planning garden logistics, and more!

After contributing to the launch of the East Campus Grove, we will be turning our efforts to greater horizons (yet to be determined) toward making an edible University of Oregon campus. Current ideas include orchards, fruit bushes, herb gardens, community gardens, interpretive signs related to native plants, etc… We would love to hear your ideas!

Riding bicycles, recycling at home and switching to a meat-free diet are all great steps toward reducing your environmental impact on the planet – but they’re not enough to fight climate change.

A recent post on Grist.org reminds us that our personal lifestyle choices won’t balance out the already-staggering amounts of greenhouse gases emitted from poorly regulated industries and projects such as mountaintop removal, deforestation and tar sands production.

But there is one way to fight global warming, species extinction and any other environmental issue out there: increase your carbon-busting fistprint.

Two years ago, at an intimate gathering of 500+ students at Power Shift West 2009, Environment California director Bernadette del Chiaro said, “At the end of the day, it’s not about your carbon footprint – it’s about your carbon-busting fistprint! It’s not your lifestyle; it’s your life’s work [that matters].” (For those who don’t know, this quote inspired the CJL’s can-do attitude it proliferates to this day.)

To elaborate, reducing your carbon footprint is a reactive approach to addressing environmental issues, in that you are only reacting to the problem, not solving it directly. That’s where the carbon-busting fistprint comes in: it’s a proactive approach to addressing problems, through which the problem is dealt with head-on and ceases to be a problem any longer.

One of the best results of using your carbon-busting fistprint is its effect on other people. Say you tell your friends, for example, that you stopped drinking soda because it has cancer-causing agents. If your friends drinks soda, you run the risk of alienating and personally offending them because you’re indirectly criticizing their personal choices.

If, on the other hand, you take a stand against soda companies and campaign for healthier, cancer-free ingredients in their products, your friends will most likely thank you for advocating on their behalf – and hopefully be inspired to join you in the fight.

So go ahead: bicycle, recycle and eat your veggies – but remember to include a healthy dose of carbon-busting fistprint to your everyday routine. While individual actions may not add up to much, the cumulation of hundreds of thousands – maybe millions – of people taking the same carbon-busting actions could wield extraordinary results. Together, with our fights driven high in the air, we just might save the planet.

Monica Christoffels is the current Resources and Media Facilitator of the Cascade Climate Network and was one of the first members of the Climate Justice League.